Exemplary embodiments relate generally to energy management, and more particularly, to computer based energy management.
Energy utilization has recently become a more recognized global problem due to limited supply resulting in higher costs and increasing consumption in almost every country around the world. Most current traditional energy sources are limited and therefore energy is considered a scarce resource. With demand increasing dramatically, the result will continue to be lower supply and climbing costs.
The current methods and systems that have evolved and are used for managing all types of energy are obsolete and not very efficient from several vantage points. There are at least two noteworthy inefficiencies in the current infrastructure used for energy management, control, billing and usage. First, is the basic fact that utility companies throughout the world that supply a variety of energy types, including but not limited to electricity, gas, and water, decided long ago to group all energy devices by facility or building structure and to use a method called metering to measure the usage of that building for the major purpose of billing the customer for their periodic usage. Metering is the primary method used throughout the world, and many inventions have been created to assist the utility companies in more efficiently managing this existing metering model or concept. The second major limitation in the current system is the manner in which construction companies/builders/designers have designed and constructed each facility or building by enabling a switching or control model based on pre-established control devices (e.g., switches) that are limited through pre-wiring to a group of energy devices, and typically require manual control by a person entering or leaving a room or area that was pre-wired to operate via that control device.
In the first problem described above, the limited method of metering does not allow the measurement or usage to be reported and monitored at the device level, and instead only allows reporting or billing at the facility or building level. This greatly limits or even prevents enough visibility to the actual usage itself, which is at the energy device level, thereby causing greater inefficiency through lack of visibility into the lowest common denominator of usage. The second problem described above exacerbates this challenge further by not allowing tighter control and management over the actual energy devices (e.g., lights and heating devices), and offers at best a method of control that relies on a physically random method of management mostly through uninterested parties walking around and who may happen to manage the utilization as a matter of convenience. For example, rooms often remain fully lit with no one using them, or the temperature of a room is relatively high with no occupants to require the energy consumption.
Energy (inclusive of electricity, gas, oil and other forms of enterprise and residential power) has historically been considered a commodity. While energy costs have increased dramatically over the past decade, the degree of innovation in the area of energy management has primarily been low tech. It would be desirable to utilize the advances in computer and networking technology to provide improved energy management in order to optimize usage and drive down the costs of energy in the commercial, government, and residential markets.